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S. African ruling party voices sympathy with protesting students

Xinhua, October 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) on Thursday voiced sympathy with protesting students who demand a zero percent increase in tuition fees.

"The students want zero increment in fees and curbing of high salaries by the University executives. Their are concerns are understandable and reasonable," ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe said after a meeting with student representatives in Johannesburg.

The meeting was also attended by the Congress of the South African Students (COSAS), the South African Students Congress (SASC), the South African Communist Party (SACP), the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), the ANC Youth League and the ANC Women's League.

The ANC is in full support of student demands for a zero percent fee increment for the 2016 academic year, Mantashe said.

He however stated that while they sympathize with the students, resources does not permit their demands.

"In the 52th ANC Congress in 2007, one of our resolutions was to have free education in the country. We could have done that even three years ago but we are eating an elephant in pieces.We have made some progress by making some funding available to some students at higher learning institutions and PHDs,"Mantashe said at a press briefing.

He said the ANC will pass the students' concerns to the government and help find a solution.

"We are committed to the transformation in the country.

Transformation is a long journey. We will pass on the message to our comrades in government but will not instruct them. As the governing party we will always receive complaints and engage to find solutions," Mantashe said.

He said the state must be given more power to regulate universities so it can intervene when mistakes are made.

Solly Mapaila, second deputy general secretary of the South African Communist Party (SACP), said, "We should not allow education to be commodified by the universities thereby affecting the children of the working class. We hope the society will appreciate the problem we face and work with us to find the solution. We should engage in this issue as a country and find the solution."

COSATU President Sdumo Dlamini said high tuition fees at universities have been a thorny issue for some time.

He said there must not be finger pointing but unity to find a solution.

Mantashe received a memorandum from the students who marched to Luthuli House, the ANC headquarters, from the Witwatersrand University and the University of Johannesburg.

Addressing students outside the ANC headquarters, former Witwatersrand Students Representative Council president Mcebo Dlamini said, "We are not here to insult the ANC but to demand a resolution from the ANC. They said there must be free education and we are demanding that. Now we are here to demand zero increase in fees."

Widespread protests have been going on for days across the country, triggered by tuition fee hikes ranging from 10 to 50 percent for the 2016 school year. The fee hikes came as a result of reduction in education funding by the government.

The government has proposed a six-percent tuition fee hike, but students have rejected the proposal. Enditem